The Effect of a Mediation-Blocking Task on the Acquisition of Instructive Feedback Targets

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - The inclusion of instructive feedback in discrete-trial training has been shown to increase the efficiency of learning. However, the behavioral mechanism...     

Predictors of Longitudinal Growth in Inhibitory Control in Early Childhood

In the current study, we examined latent growth in 731 young children's inhibitory control from the ages of two to four years, and whether demographic characteristics or parenting behaviors were related to initial levels and growth in inhibitory control. As part of an ongoing longitudinal evaluation of the family check‐up, children's inhibitory control was assessed yearly at the ages of two to four years. Inhibitory control was initially low and increased linearly to the age of four years. High levels of harsh parenting and male gender were associated with low initial status in inhibitory control. High levels of parental positive behavior support were associated with faster growth. Extreme family poverty and African‐American ethnicity were also associated with slower growth. The results highlight parenting as a target for early interventions in contexts of high socioeconomic risk.     

Approaching Error-Free Customer Satisfaction Through Process Change and Feedback Systems

Employee-based errors result in quality defects that can often impact customer satisfaction. This study examined the effects of a process change and feedback system intervention on error rates of 3 teams of retail furniture distribution warehouse workers. Archival records of error codes were analyzed and aggregated as the measure of quality. The intervention consisted of a process change where teams of 5 employees who had previously been assigned a specific role within the process were cross-trained to know and help with other team members' functions. Additionally, these teams were given performance feedback on an immediate, daily, and weekly basis. Team A reduced mean errors from 7.47 errors per week during baseline to 3.53 errors per week during the intervention phase. Team B experienced a reduction in mean number of weekly errors from a baseline of 11.39 errors per week to 3.82 errors per week during the intervention phase. Team C did not experience significant error rate reduction.     

The adoption of women’s legislative caucuses worldwide

Recent decades have witnessed the rise, across a wide range of countries, of political institutions designed to promote gender equality and women’s political representation. Existing studies have shown how international diffusion processes have contributed to the adoption of two kinds of such institutions – gender mainstreaming and gender quotas. Mounting evidence suggests that institutional reforms within legislatures constitute the latest wave of gendered institutional reform. This article identifies and explains trends in the adoption of one kind of gender-focused parliamentary institution – women’s legislative caucuses (WLCs). We use a discrete time duration model to assess the effect of several factors on WLC establishment. While there is theoretical room to expect diffusion, structural and institutional variables to affect the likelihood of caucus adoption, we find the strongest empirical support for diffusion and institutional factors. A parliament’s likelihood of adopting a WLC rises when sub-regional peers have created WLCs, when women’s international non-governmental organizations are active in the country and when the country has implemented a gender quota. Understanding the factors that affect the adoption of gender-focused parliamentary institutions is critically important, we argue, since such bodies provide space to confront masculinized institutionalized rules and norms.     

Children's and Adolescents' Developing Perceptions of Gender Inequality

Two studies examined children's and adolescents' developing perceptions of gender inequality. The first study examined perceptions of inequality among 272 early, middle, and late adolescents, focusing on the spheres of politics, business, and the home. Results indicated an age‐related increase in perceptions of male dominance. Men were seen to have more power and status in politics than in business whereas relative equality was seen to exist in the home. The second study included 96 child and adolescent participants aged 7–15 and once again found an increase in general perceptions of male dominance with age. Results suggest that young children are less explicitly aware of gender inequality than might be assumed given their extensive knowledge of power‐loaded gender‐role stereotypes.     

Decentering constructs predict experience and tolerance of pain: evidence from a cold pressor study / Constructos relacionados con el descentramiento predicen la experiencia y la tolerancia al dolor: evidencia obtenida mediante la prueba del frío

Abstract

Decentering is a detached, observer perspective on one’s current mental contents. Recent work has identified two potential aspects of decentering, Observer Perspective (OP) and Reduced Struggle (RS), that independently predict the effects of decentering. Specifically, both OP and RS predict reduced psychological distress in response to negative affect, with some variability in predictive utility across outcomes. In this study, we sought to extend previous work by examining OP and RS as predictors of responses to an external source of distress, a painful stimulus. Participants completed measures of decentering, followed by a cold pressor task for up to four minutes. We recorded time that participants were able to withstand the cold-water bath and the intensity of the pain experienced. We found that both OP and RS predicted partiacipants’ pain tolerance and pain intensity, but that only RS did so uniquely. Results are discussed with respect to theory on decentering.     

Theorizing accommodation in supportive home care for older people

This paper examines the issue of what thinking is necessary in order to advance a notion of accommodation in the organization and provision of supportive home care for older people. Accommodation in this context is understood as responsiveness to the singularity of older adults, and we consider how this idea might be used to support opportunities for (independent) living for elders as they age and become frailer. To elaborate the question we draw on examples from our empirical work – ethnographic studies of home care practice undertaken in Canada and Iceland – and consider these examples in light of critical philosophical and social theory, particularly Agamben's (1993) work, The Coming Community. This is a relevant frame through which to consider the potential for the accommodation of the unique needs of older adults in home care because it helps us to problematize the systems through which care is accomplished and the current, dominant terms of relations between individuals and collectives. We argue that giving substance to a notion of accommodation contributes an important dimension to aligned ideas, such as patient-centeredness in care, by working to shift the intentionality of these practices. That is, accommodation, as an orientation to care practices, contests the organizational impulse to carry on in the usual way.     

Generation,Displacement, and Deservedness among Karen Refugees in California

In this article, we draw on ethnographic interviews with sixteen Karen refugees living in San Diego, California to explore how experiences of exile, displacement, and resettlement differ along generational lines and complicate straightforward dichotomies between “involuntary refugees” and “economic migrants”. While older‐generation Karen experienced political violence and displacement first‐hand, younger‐generation Karen were born in refugee camps in Thailand and usually experienced violence and displacement through its impacts on extended families. Across both generations, Karen exerted agency in exile, displacement, and diaspora. The older generation used stays in refugee camps strategically as a means of economically supporting family members in Burma, while the younger generation view resettlement in the US as a way of achieving educational aspirations. This research points to the importance of generation as a dimension of refugee experience and to the problem of reinforcing victimhood within refugee communities rather than acknowledging refugee agency and resilience.     

Associations Online: Barriers for Using Web-Based Communication in Voluntary Associations

Despite the high adoption level of Facebook and other social network sites (SNSs) in Norway, local level voluntary associations have not embraced SNSs to the same degree. Regular websites are the main web representation, and information provision is the main function of the associations’ web representations. Using quantitative data on website content and organizational characteristics we have analyzed which factors hinder SNS adoption. The results point to size and complexity of associations and to age-based digital divides among members as important factors for having a profile on a SNS. It seems that a certain numerical point must be reached in terms of organizational and community size, for SNSs to be useful. Also, older members, smaller economy and a low degree of formalization in associations might hamper the implementation of SNSs in associations. Using Norway as a critical case, this article contributes new knowledge about web communication in voluntary organizations, an increasingly important field of research internationally.